Germany: Ministry of Finance to quintuple the fees to be charged for companies using local 5G frequencies

Harmut Rauen, The deputy executive director of the German Mechanical Engineering Industry Association (VDMA), said that the plan of the Ministry of Finance to quintuple the fees to be charged for companies using local 5G frequencies in their factories is “unacceptable”, Handelsblatt reports.

The prices are “way too high”, Rauen said. The VDMA believes that the ministry is creating an entry barrier for companies that want to build local 5G networks.

Potential applications for so-called 5G campus networks in the industry are, for example, the control of autonomous robots, driverless transport systems or fast storage systems. The federal government plans to soon introduce a catalogue with security requirements for network operators.